The story
Tincup — named for a prospector who carried his gold dust in a tin cup — boomed in 1879 and earned a reputation as one of the wildest camps in the Gunnison country: its first several town marshals were run off, corrupted, or shot, and the town cemetery famously holds separate knolls for Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and 'boot hill.'
The gold declined by the 1890s and the post office closed in 1918, but Tincup never quite emptied: summer families kept the cabins, and today a small seasonal community, a historic store, and the four-knoll cemetery make it one of the friendliest semi-ghosts in the Rockies.
What remains today
Original cabins and false-fronts (many privately kept), the town hall, and the famous segregated-knoll cemetery west of town.
Questions from the field
- Does anyone live in Tincup?
- Seasonally, yes — a small summer community occupies many of the historic cabins. Year-round population is essentially zero once the passes snow in.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Tincup — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Tincup's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — USGS GNIS feature 189089
- — Gunnison County Pioneer and Historical Society
- — Colorado Encyclopedia — Tin Cup